September 01, 1984 by Ralph D. Winter

"That you may abound In hope by the power or the Holy Spirit" Romans 15:11

In this issue, the bar chart on this page SETS THE TONE. There you see a wide variety of growth¬concerned mission societies, large and small. (The percentage, and length of bar, indicates the number of new people they expect to recruit over the next ten years in comparison to their present number of active missionaries.

Our cover story, written by the Deputy General Director of SIM international, W. Harold Fuller, SETS THE PACE. Twelve of their new fields are described on pages 8 and 9, and the amazing process whereby you get to be a missionary is portrayed on pages 10 and 11.

Church Growth/Mission Growth

The average pastor is well acquainted with the many books available these days on the subject of church growth.

To my knowledge, there is only one book entitled MISSIONS GROWTH (William Carey Library, 1984). This recent book by Lauri Ahonen is essentially the story of the Finnish Free Foreign Mission which has the outstanding record of 300 missionaries sent out by a church tradition of only 45,000 believers.

Of course, there are other church constituencies such as the the United States which have an even better record proportionately, but the question Ahonen raises about the phenomenon of the growth of missions is what is new and exciting.

Mission Growth is the subject of this issue and as a subject must become a required course for all who are concerned about the evangelization of the world.

Small Missions: An Advantage?

If you were a young person you might be attracted to a new, young leader, heading a brand now agency. Or, perhaps you wouldn't.

One impressive trend we reported last January regarding the huge Wydliffe enterprise, is that their average annual growth rate varied as follows:

• 1942 20%
• 1948 15%
• 1958 8%
• 1982 5%

But even they, big as they are, seem to have taken an upturn in recruitment. Last year they recruited close to 10% of their total number. Their U.S. division alone (there are 26 other countries recruiting new workers) receives 1,000 inquiries a month from potential candidates. (Wycliffe is so specialized 63% never write again.)

It is true that the largest percentages in the bar chart are for smaller agencies. But Wydliffe, Campus Crusade, and SIM International all have more than 1,000 overseas workers and all three expect in the next ten years to recruit in the neighborhood of 200% of their present number of people on the field.

Big Missions Grow Faster?

Some do, some don't. Again, not necessarily for spiritual reasons. The CMA, has an enormous number of missionaries for a group its size (see pages 14, 15). As their Vice President for Overseas Ministries points out.

"Significant Increase in the number of missionaries poses formidable problems for a denomination with a structure like that of the Christian and Missionary Alliance."

What he means can probably be phrased as a growth axiom: Where the mission giving of a minority is controlled by the majority, mission giving tends to decline.

The reason the ceiling of an interdenominational agency is relatively less limited is the simple fact that such agencies are dealing with merely the mission minded minority.

Why Statistics are Unfair

The very last thing we want to communicate with the statistics we present Is that they show who is spiritual and who is not.

First of all, we have had to make guesses from data of different types from different periods for different groups! Probably none of the agencies listed will recognize what we have done with their data.

For example, SIM told us exactly how many they felt they had to recruit in order to meet their doubling goal.

Other missions merely told us the net increase for which they work and pray, and we have had to guess how many additional people they will have to recruit simply to replace those who retire.

Thus, all this chart means is that the total number of new people these missions expect to have to recruit is 150% or 300% (or whatever) larger than what they already have.

For example, due to retirements, one mission may have to recruit a lot more people than another mission with a younger work force.

Meanwhile, none of these statistics take into account a more difficult figure to estimate   the number of missionaries who come home for some reason other than retirement   a figure which varies greatly from mission to mission, and even year to year (see the case of TEAM).

The New Mood in Missions

A dramatic change has swept the Christian world in the last five years.

For example, a spectacular decision came out of the Christian and Missionary Alliance Board of Managers meeting in Atlanta in 1978.

They decided to double in nine years what they had taken 90 years to achieve: they felt that the CMA ought to double its membership by their anniversary year of 1987.

Curiously, their first impulse was not to project a measurable goal for increase in their famous overseas missionary force, already one of the largest. When they did it was not to double but to grow cautiously at 3% per year (meaning in 9 years a 30% growth).

David Moore, Vice President/Overseas Ministries tells some of the factors in his comments on page 14.